WASHINGTON – President Bush last night lampooned Sen. John Kerry for policy flip-flops and said if America elects a hesitant leader in the terror war, “the world will drift toward tragedy.”

Bush defended his leadership as sure and steady and, in his first real attacks on the Democratic presidential candidates, charged, “So far all we hear is a lot of old bitterness and partisan anger” from them.

Bush mocked Kerry – and at the same time tried to paint the Democrat as an uncertain leader who’s wrong for the post-9/11 era – in a joke at the beginning of his speech to Republican governors.

“The other party’s nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions – for tax cuts and against them, for NAFTA and against NAFTA, for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act, in favor of the liberation of Iraq and opposed to it.

“And that’s just one senator from Massachusetts,” Bush said, getting a roaring response from the Republican crowd.

Bush never mentioned Kerry or John Edwards by name, but charged that the Democratic candidates are trying to work both sides of the Iraq issue, saying that they approve of Saddam Hussein’s removal from power but that they opposed the U.S.-led war.

“Maybe they were hoping he would lose the next Iraqi election,” Bush said.

Asked about Bush’s new offensive while he was campaigning in Harlem, Kerry shot back, “I think George Bush is on the run. And I think he’s on the run because he doesn’t have a record to run on.”

Bush repeatedly told the audience that the election would offer America a clear choice.

“It’s a choice between an America that leads the world with strength and confidence, or an America that is uncertain in the face of danger,” Bush said.

Bush, who will start running positive campaign ads on his leadership at the end of next week, said the consequences of the election will be felt through into the middle of the century. “You and I are living in a period when the stakes are high,” he said.

If America is hesitant or uncertain, he said, “The world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.”

“No friend or enemy today doubts the word of the United States,” he said.